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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— It has been hard to miss Evan Mobley at the USA U19 FIBA World Championship tryouts. The 7-0 senior from Rancho Christian School in Temecula, Calif. with a 7-4 wingspan has the best long team potential of any one in the trials

Despite his slim frame, his versatile skills – the ability to run the floor, throw down slam dunks with his left off hand, drain threes with ease and block multiple shots—have allowed him to play four different positions and made him the No. 1 prospect in the loaded class of 2020 and most likely the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA draft.

Mobley has already drawn comparisons to Anthony Davis and Jaren Jackson.

Mobley may be only 18-years old, but he is one of four rising seniors along with 6-7 guard Cade Cunningham of Montverde Academy, 6-5 guard Jalen Green of Fresno, Calif. and 6-8 forward Scottie Barnes of University High in Fla. – who have a chance to make the final roster for the team that will play in the Worlds on the isle of Crete in Greece from June 30 through July 8.

Mobley comes from a basketball family. His father Eric, who played for the University of Portland and Cal-Poly before playing internationally for Mexico and Indonesia, became an assistant at USC, where his 6-10 brother Isaiah — a Top 15 prospect in the class of 2019– will be a freshman this season. Their mother, Nicol, a teacher, also played as a teenager.

“My first sport was soccer,’’ Evan said. “I did that to work on my footwork. When I started elementary school, my dad created a travel team for us and I started playing with them,’’ Evan said I would always play up in age because Isaiah was also older than me, so that always made me better. So, when I played down, I was dominating my age group.

“I got a lot of help from my father. He was 6-8 and was a big in college and overseas so he made a lot of connections. So, I always had a lot of people helping me in the gym.’’

The two brothers were raised in a household that had strong family values. The brothers grew up with three foster siblings throughout the years. One was a foreign exchange student from China. A second was a fifth-grade student in one of his mothers’ classes who lived with the family for seven years when Evan and Isaiah were in grade school. A third the family met through relatives when the boys were younger.

But their competitive nature came out when they played against each other in on a regular basis. Evan dominated players in his age- group but he had difficulty beating his brother in one on one games. He would try to play until 100 until he could win. Evan’s desire to win rubbed off on his brother. “My brother and I would always get into it and my parents would have to tell us to tone it down,’’ Evan said.

“We used to fight a lot because he would have a temper- tantrums but once he got it under control, there was no problems,’’ Isaiah said. “He was a sore loser, which is good because he plays hard and hates to lose. I used to beat him 90 percent of the time and he used to hate it. He’d want to fight me. But I think that’s why he is so good now.’’

Evan’s ultra-competitiveness has had to minor injuries growing up. One time, Evan was running up a wall to dunk on a 10-foot rim and he was constantly dunking. His father told him to stop because he didn’t want him to get hurt because he was still young. He dunked again, then fell on his wrist and broke his right hand. Then he hurt his wrist again, and ever since, he’s been left-handed. His shoots right-handed, writes right-handed but on the court, he leads with his left hand.

Then, there was an WWE-style wrestling match he had with Isaiah at his cousin’s house when he went to tackle his brother and got hit in his mouth.

Evan has done plenty of damage the last two years. He averaged 19 points, 12 rebounds and 4.7 blocks and he and his older brother led Rancho Christian to a 26-5 record and put their team on the map with a win over Memphis East. Evan was a star on the U17 World championship team that struck gold in Argentina. Then, when he played for the Compton Magic, he led the team to the adidas Gauntlet title  and then went off for 22 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists as the Magic defeated EBLY champion Team Takeover in overtime during a showdown game in Vegas.

This spring, he and Cunningham were the best players in the Pangos All American camp in Norwalk, Calif. The soft-spoken Mobley seems like a lock for the McDonald’s All America game, appears to be a lock to follow his brother to USC and maybe even play a year with him at Troy.

“I don’t like to call people perfect basketball players and in general, we’ve hardly discussed this stuff,’’ Rancho coach Ray Barefield said. “But if you could make up the perfect player, you’re talking about a very smart, highly skilled player who knows how to block shots with either hand, is big picture motivated, and has a mean streak to him.

“Evan is a quick study. What separates him is he’s a very detailed person. He cares about the mechanics and details, so what you have is a 7-footer who happens to play with the preciseness of a 5-10 guard.’’

 

Dick Weiss is a sportswriter and columnist who has covered college football and college and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He has received the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the national Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has also co-written several books with Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and authored a tribute book on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

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